Hey Beautiful People!
It sounds like everyone had a really good week! Even if there was stress along with preparing for the big concert. My week was way solid, too. I liked it a lot and it went by sooo fast, it's ridiculous. I really can't believe that it is almost June!!!
I want to start off by saying that it sounds like the concert was incredible!! I really hope you guys can send me a DVD or put some of it on youtube or something. I went to the site Dad told me about and checked the pictures out. They are super sweet! They made me want to see it even more. Good job, J!
I'll start by answering your questions and then I'll fill in the rest of my week with all the big, fun, hugely important things. The Militarus are doing really well like always, but I don't know that they are getting any closer to getting baptized. I really don't know how to help them anymore. We still pray a lot for them, but that is about all I know to do for now. On Saturday we went over there for a little bit to help Gabi get ready for an english test. It was so much fun. Elder Bringhurst was cracking jokes like crazy and Gabi, too, it was hilarious to just chill with them and have fun(we were just chatting in english).
Alex is doing well. We've been going over the missionary lessons with him to review it all, and focusing on baptism. We've done the restoration and the plan of salvation so far. After we finish we're going to make a plan with him how he can prepare and then call his mom and tell her about why he wants to get baptized. I really hope that goes well.
In the blocs we have found some cool people this week. We met two ladies(neighbors actually) and then the next day we went back to both of them with Sora Pacurar(Alex's grandma). She was great and the ladies were really cool. They didn't come to church unfortunately, but hopefully next week. Ok, one of the highlights of the week was Saturday evening. We had an exchange with Calin and Daniel. I went with Calin and it was a blast. He is so talkative and so eager to try new things, he did at least 75% of the speaking. It was really sweet and we had some solid lessons. Lessons that we might not have gotten without a Romanian. It was good, because it helps to find solid people and it also pumps up the members for missionary work. Daniel who is a way shy guy started to open up on his exchange with Elder Bringhurst and he really felt the Spirit. He had a really good time and is anxious to go again. I really don't know why I never started doing this earlier in my mission. I've had exchanges once in a while before, but we are going to start doing them every week. I just got the idea last night to have the day planned when we want to do it and then every Sunday at priesthood talk for a minute about the last exchange we had and how the members were awesome and then ask who can come with us for an exchange that next week. It's going to be sweet. I think this is really going to boost the whole branch. I feel pretty fired up about this right now. Hopefully, members will gain even more trust in us and a greater desire to give their friends as referrals.
Yesterday, one of Cosmin's friends came to church. He saw a difference/change in Cosmin a long time ago when Cosmin got baptized and finally came to church to see what it's about. He is a way high class guy and he asked tons of good questions in Sunday School. We're going to call Cosmin tonight and ask him more about Bogdan(the friend) and see if we can help answer some of Bogdan's questions.
I love the branch here. There are some complete families here and some young ones, too. Francisc and Monica have an almost 1-year old kid, Mihai and Veronica(she's Polish, they speak english together) and she's pregnant and then Cosmin and Lavinia are getting married on July 12th. These people are the future of the Church in Romania! And a lot of the reason why I love this branch so much. Those three men(Francisc, Cosmin and Mihai) are all super solid guys and anyone of them could be branch president. I look up to them a lot. I want to have a sweet young family like them. We also have some quality youth like Calin and Daniel(both 18) and then there is Simona(17), Iulia(24?). There a lot of children/younger youth growing up in the Church. Victor(Fratele Iepure's, our branch mission leader, son) is 14 and just became a teacher and then, though not members, Gabi, Cristi and Maria and also Alex are sweet and will definitely become members one beautiful day. I'm in love with this branch and I hope with all my heart I get at least one more transfer here.
Our english classes are a joke, they've pretty much died off. We still have maybe 4 students left, hopefully we can get a couple of them to church this next Sunday. Yeah, the classes are usually the same time, with beginner, medium and advanced. We have them Tuesday night and Saturday morning.
In the last over two months I have only had one Sunday where I wasn't fasting! And next week is fast sunday. I don't mean to be a gripe, but it's kind of getting to me. Iulia called us and asked us to fast with her for something. Elder Bringhurst talked with her so when he told me, I was kind of mad at first. But I got over it and tried to fast with purpose and not complaining. I'm glad we could help her. Still, fasting is starting to lose its meaning/ purpose for me. After this next week, I hope I don't need to fast until the next 1st sunday of the month.
Well, I don't really know what to do. It was a great week. Not just for us, but the whole zone. We're hoping that next week is even better. We have a lot of great things to build off of. I hope you guys have a great week, too. I love you all!
Elder Ross
